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Belton, Texas – The University of Mary Hardin-Baylor women's basketball team will make its fourth straight appearance in the American Southwest Conference Championship Tournament and its 12
th overall appearance when the Cru faces East Texas Baptist in an ASC First Round game Thursday in Tyler. The UMHB women are the #2 seed from the West Division in this year's event.
The UMHB women will enter the tournament with a 15-10 overall record and the Cru women went 9-5 in ASC play this season. UMHB has also won seven straight games to close out the regular season. The Cru women will open the tournament with a 5:00 PM first-round game against East Division #3 seed East Texas Baptist University (16-9). The winner of that game will move into a 7:30 PM semifinal game on Friday against the winner of the U.T.-Tyler (24-1, East Division #1 seed) vs. Concordia Texas (14-11, West Division #4 seed) first-round game. The other side of the bracket will see LeTourneau University (16-9, East Division #2 seed) taking on Hardin-Simmons University (10-15, West Division #3 seed) at 12:00 on Thursday and U.T.-Dallas (14-11, East Division #4 seed) facing West Division #1 seed Howard Payne University (16-9) at 2:30 PM. The first semifinal game will be played at 5:00 PM on Friday with the two semifinal winners meeting in the ASC Championship game at 4:00 PM on Saturday. The ASC Tournament champion will receive the league's automatic bid to the NCAA Division III National Championships.
UMHB beat ETBU 80-62 in the regular season meeting between the two teams in Marshall on January 14
th. The Cru led by six points at halftime and then pulled away in the fourth quarter to coast to the win. UMHB shot 50 percent from the field as a team in the second half and hit 9-13 from three-point range in the final two quarters.
Jonelle Smith led the Cru with 21 points off the bench and she was 6-7 from long-range in the win.
Tori Tucker added 16 points and
Kendra Wynn chipped in with 12. UMHB held the Tigers to 9-30 shooting from beyond the arc in the victory.
Smith leads the team in scoring at 13.5 points per game this season. Taylor and
Kourtney Bevers are UMHB's second-leading scorers at 10.1 points per game. Wynn is the Cru's leading rebounder at 6.5 boards per contest and
Bridjai Chaney is right behind her at 6.4 rebounds per game.
Meghan Turner leads UMHB with 99 assists and
Destini Oakmon has 78 assists on the year.
The Cru women are 5-4 against the rest of the ASC Tournament field this season. UMHB split with Howard Payne and Hardin-Simmons and swept Concordia Texas. The Cru beat U.T.-Dallas and lost to U.T.-Tyler and LeTourneau during the regular season.
The UMHB women advanced to the ASC Tournament Championship game in 2014, 2006 and 2001. The Cru women have advanced to at least the second round of the ASC Tournament in five of their previous 11 trips to the conference tournament. UMHB has an 8-11 all-time record in ASC Tournament play.
All of the ASC Tournament games will be played at the Herrington Patriot Center on the campus of U.T.-Tyler in Tyler, Texas. Tickets are $5 for adults and $3 for students each day. There are no tournament passes and there are no complimentary tickets for ASC Championship events. U.T.-Tyler will also provide free video steaming and live statistics for all ASC Women's Basketball Tournament games through the school's tournament web site (
http://www.uttylerpatriots.com/aschoops/default/) or on the ASC's Tournament Central Page available at
www.ascsports.org.
